Who Am I?

That's just the question of questions isn't it? Self definition, when you can reach that place when you can describe exactly who you are.

The idea for this post came up when I was talking with my parents and they were talking about how people define themselves by their careers especially the prestigious ones. When introducing themselves they say I'm so and so and I'm a Doctor, Lawyer, Engineer etc. Then they were like that's what you DO but is exactly what you ARE? A career is what you do for a few hours a day but who you are encompasses way more than that, what you think about, what you dream about when you sleep, what you talk about most. Describing one self is not so easy as saying as what you do 9-5 Monday to Friday. I fond this particular definition interesting because professionally I can describe myself in two different ways, maybe even three yet I'm not actively engaged in any as a career so it would be restrictive to use any as a definition.

In life we have so many frames of references which we use to describe ourselves. I gave the example of career but what else could it be?

When we are children you're somebody's son/daughter.
In School we are identified by the school we attend, the more prestigious it is the more proud we are
When working it's the company we work for, the chosen career.
When Married you introduce yourself as somebody's husband or wife.
When you have children you become Baba nani or Mama nani
The list goes on and on, we use our environment to describe who we are yet what matters most is who we are within.

Self actualization and a search for purpose are the highest pursuits in human life and I can bet there's nothing better than knowing exactly who you are and what you are here for and to stand up and say I am _ and not restrict yourself to the above definitions but speak from a position of authority. So when I meet people who are so passionate about a cause and know that's what their calling is I'm really moved and go like "When I grow up I want to be like him/her"

In the good book Jesus Christ asks a similar question to one of his disciples - Luke 9:18 but He had already demonstrated time and time again He knew who He was, not just a carpenter as they would have defined Him using his profession.

Was reminded of these thoughts when I read this note Which reminds us that God as our maker knows who we are as our maker and if we are to get these answers the first place to look is up to Him for answers. So for all my fellow hunters- yet to get and answer happy hunting, go to the manufacturer for more information.


I sign off with this beautiful song by Casting crowns

Guilty Until Proven Innocent

Over the last few days our televisions screen have been filled with the proceedings at the International Criminal Court at the Hague. Three men stand accused of bearing the greatest responsibility for the post election violence that took place in early 2008 in Kenya. The prosecutor Moreno Ocampo has come up with a list of charges with evidence which he believes proves the guilt of the supposed perpetrators. So he and his team have gone to great lengths to nail the accused, their job is to prove without a doubt that what they claim happened when he said it happened.

At the same time the accused have assembled teams of bright legal minds to defend their case before the judges. Right now they're trying to discredit the charges before it goes to trial. The defence has also worked hard if not harder to get their clients off the hook and paint the prosecutor as an accuser with no solid case whatsoever.

The truth of the charges and the defence is yet to be seen and we pray that the wheels of justice will turn for the benefit of the victims and the country as a whole. That we will never allow such a thing to happen at the time. This whole courtroom drama at the Hague got me thinking...

There's another courtroom where each and every one of us is to stand, not in this physical world but before God, the final and the almighty judge. There is a prosecutor- an accuser of the brethren rev 12:10 who stands before God to show how sinful and terrible we are. Every time we commit sin and disobey God we give him ammunition to go and present in his case against us. He's never been our friend and wants us to join him in his end of eternal damnation.

Many of us try to walk into that court and attempt to defend ourselves against the charges placed against us. They say he who represents himself has a fool for a lawyer, even worse in this court where you will be torn to shreds by the accusing enemy. So how will you prepare yourself for these proceedings? Your own testimony will not be enough to exonerate yourself. Praise God that he has created a way for us, he has even provided representation pro bono. We don't have to pay exorbitant legal fees as the price has already been paid by His own dear son Jesus Christ on the cross.

In 1 John 2:1 when writing to the believers he says “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:” When you believe in Christ you draft him into your legal team and he stands as an advocate before God the Father for you. Whereas in an earthly court you're innocent till proven guilty in court, before God you're guilty until proven innocent by the blood of Jesus Christ by which we obtain forgiveness from sins.

So now I ask are you trying to defend yourself before God on your own? By your own works or have you by faith received the gift of God which is salvation through his son. Have you drafted Christ into your legal team or are you still allowing the enemy to continue building his case against you. Freedom is available in Christ today!

God bless

Where are you digging?

In John Chapter 4 Jesus meets the Woman at the well and asks her for water. she's surprised that a Jew would actually talk to a Samaritan but Jesus tells her something very interesting “whoever drinks the water from the well shall thirst again but the water I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up to eternal life”- vs 14.

What are the characteristics of this water

• It is eternal, lasts forever not just for a time and leads to eternal life,
• The water springs from within and whoever drinks out of him shall flow rivers of living water. It is not only for the recipient but will flow to others around.

It is obvious that this water he talks about his figurative and he was referring to the Holy Spirit. The presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives satisfies, it is not a temporary high but a source of eternal hope ans sustenance for our spirits. Not only for us but it flows to bless and impact those around us.

Contrast this with the earthly water which comes from a well. After drinking it you will eventually become thirsty again. So it is with earthly physical things, they are temporary just as life on earth is temporary. You find them here and you shall leave them here when you die. They can only satisfy for a time and they will leave you hungering and thirsting for more. In this woman's case you can tell it had to do with love/sex because of the 5 husbands story.

What are these things that people try to satisfy themselves with?

• Food
• Money
• Sex /love
• Power
• Entertainment, etc

The list could go on and on. There's a common saying that there's a God shaped vacuum in every one of us. One of the greatest needs for us as human beings is for significance, a sense of purpose and many a time we try to fill our lives with a lot of those things some of which I have listed above but in the end we still find ourselves empty. Why? It is because it's 'water that is from the well', not the living water hence we thirst again and the cycle continues.

However if we come to the well of Living water Jesus Christ we shall find rest for our souls. He shall take away the burden of sin that holds us down and give us a new sense of purpose, God is the one who created us and has the answers to those questions that we seek. If we believe in him he has promised us eternal life...

In the old testament the people of Judah were accused of abandoning the living well and digging broken cisterns- Jeremiah 2:13. These cisterns were dug in the ground to hold water for use in the dry season but if it was broken the water would leak out and all you'd scoop is sand! God had given them his laws but they chose to disobey and worship idols forsaking Him 'the fountain of living water.' They knew the true God and went outside to serve useless gods who could do nothing for them but bring destruction. Even the other nations around them had never left their own gods but they did. They are urged by the prophet Jeremiah to come back to that fountain.

Jesus said that whoever believes in Him shall have river of living water shall flow out of his belly. In our day as Christians we are even more privileged to have Christ living within us and so it is even more tragic for us when we look to other sources for fulfilment.

In Jeremiah's time the people of Judah looked to idolatry and immorality- broken cisterns which were flawed in their very design and would never hold any water. Even we as Christians can easily fall into that trap by allowing ourselves to yield to worldly desires yet Christ is the one who is our source, the giver of every good thing. The best is in Christ not out in the world where there is so much that does not give real purpose and meaning. Let us return to Christ and be refreshed again. We could be letting other things become our priority which in the end will not give us satisfaction.

These could be the things listed above but also sometimes also we can be looking for fulfilment in something like career which is not inherently bad but once again it is only temporary not permanent and should not blind us from seeing the bigger picture. So what is it that is substituting for Christ? Is it your job? Is it you family? Is it political ambitions? Is is money? Is it a relationship or the search for love? Is it entertainment in a quest to cure boredom to fill the emptiness within?

In conclusion there are two groups of people reading this. If you are looking for meaning and purpose in your life, wearied by the struggles of this life, trying to work it all out on your own, like the woman at the well come to Christ and get that living water that you shall never thirst again. I'm also speaking to those who have tasted of that living fountain and are trying to dig other wells that do not hold water. It will not work! Return to the source and be refreshed again then the waters shall flow in and through you...

you dig?
God bless

Have you read it?

I have one of those Huawei Ideos Android phones. Small but powerful device thanks to the operating system and a number of applications I’ve downloaded to make maximum use of the phone. I acquired it because I knew about its flexibility and capabilities and being a techie who likes being online it was cool to have a device that would keep me plugged in to the online world on the go. However all the goodies come with a price, the fast 3G internet access really takes a toll on the battery life as well as my airtime! First thing I learnt was the tricks of how to maximize the battery life and minimize data usage and even downloaded an application to help me out with that. So after a couple of months of studying the device I pretty much know my way around it and how to get every last minute of battery life out of it as well as minimize the impact on my pocket.

Yesterday I came across another who owns the same device and she was complaining about it as expected- how it is a black hole for airtime and the daily battery charging ritual. So I asked whether she’s turned off the automatic synchronization as well as managed the data use. It was news to her, all that time she was oblivious to the tricks I’d become so accustomed to. So being the techie I made a few tweaks and told her “now watch and see how much longer your airtime and battery will last.” There’s this little power management widget on the phone that allows you to control what running on the phone- wifi, synchronization, GPS and the screen brightness. Upon seeing it she asked “What does this mean?” pointing at the GPS logo I said that was GPS. Next question- “What is GPS?”. Okay! right then I realized not everybody speaks geek like me and knows these acronyms off head. Gave a brief explanation and told her if she doesn’t use it, turning it off will be to her benefit.

When complaining about how I had to learn all this in the first week or so and how the 600MB Safaricom offers was quickly finished. Another question ‘”what’s 600MB?” Now tempted as I was didn’t go all Sheldon Cooper (he of the Big Bang theory fame ) on her. Once again I was reminded was not among geeks, turns out she had no idea about the offer at all, heck she hadn’t even used the 1000 bob airtime that came with the phone! That was strange to me as all those riders are what had made the phone such a bargain in the first place but she knew nothing of them. So being the good helpful geek I am I activated the bundle and went on to explain how economical data bundles are as opposed to using airtime for browsing.

Now the point of this story is not to up my geek cred or to ‘Sheldon’ her about not being with ‘IT’ pun intended  No what I wanted to highlight is that she did not know what she had in her hands. She did not know how to maximize the potential of the product she was holding. She was oblivious of the tricks of the game that the owner of the device needs to know. That got me thinking of the way as Christians we sometimes forget the power within that comes from Christ. The manufacturers of the phone- in this case Huawei printed a manual and tell you to read the manual before operating it- yeah I know you’re smiling because y’all hardly ever do that. One of the famous answers when one asks a computer related question is “read the manual”- that’s the nice version…

Similarly God as our creator can be likened to the manufacturer, He has also given a manual in His word the bible and many times we don’t realize the power of God because like the lady I met we are ignorant of what is in His word. Jesus said – ‘you have not because you ask not.’ Matthew 7:7 How can we know what to ask for if we do not know our rights and privileges as the children of God? We’ve got to get connected to the ‘manufacturer’ to know the tricks in this game of life. These tricks are also known as wisdom- knowledge applied to the situations in life.

So now I ask you who’s reading this. When was the last time you looked at the manual? You may just be missing out on the answers contained therein… If you are to succeed in the Christian walk it is important to do that. So how about giving the good old manual a look? I’ll leave you with these words

Ps 19:7 “ The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The testimonies of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.”(NIV)

2 Timothy 3:16 “All scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (NIV)

Be blessed